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Why?

First, it’s good to be back doing these reflections. I took a couple of weeks off from them; I was in Nicaragua for a week with our youth on a mission trip, and then last week I was at St. Simons Island in Georgia for the Order of the FLAME Conference. Took good, busy, and kingdom minded weeks. But it’s good to get back into my routines!

One of the questions that we ask, or are tempted to ask, in life a lot is why? Why did this happen? Why did this happen to me? Why did this happen to them? Why is this happening? Why is one of the questions in our lives that pops up all the time.

And that’s ok. We want to know. We want to understand. It’s a question and a concept that every one of us, everyone, deals with and works with. Especially when something bad or tragic happens. We want to be able to make sense of the chaos and confusion and brokenness. We want it to make sense.

We want to know why?

And we aren’t the only ones. Look today at want happens in John 9: 1-3:

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

The disciples saw a man with tragedy in his life. He was born blind. And they wanted to make sense of it. They wanted to understand. So, the only way (in their mind) this made sense was for him to have do something to cause this, or his parents to have done something to have caused this. Someone did something to make this happen (in their mind). That’s the only way that this made sense.

So, they ask, whose fault is it? Why did this happen?

And notice what Jesus said. He said this man didn’t do anything neither did his parents. God is fixing to do something.

I love how Jesus reframed this question. He said – this thing, it will be for God’s glory. God is going to use it. God is going to bring something good out of it. God is going to make a difference through this. Something will happen that is amazing and beautiful because of this.

Because that’s what God does. He makes beauty out of the mess. He brings grace out of the pain. He brings resurrection out of death. He brings life.

So today, there may no be an answer to the why. But there is a point to the problem. God will bring something good out of the why. Because that’s what He does.

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